The Internet Is Changing The Way We Think

How the Internet Is Changing the Way We Think

It's not for the better. 

Brigitt Earley | December 2015

Imagine this scene: You're out to dinner when someone poses a question and, immediately, there's a sea of four phones ready and willing to Google the answer. Sound familiar? A new study from the University of Waterloo offers some insight into why this happens so often—and it's not necessarily because nobody knows the answer, say researchers. 

"With the ubiquity of the Internet, we are almost constantly connected to large amounts of information. And when that data is within reach, people seem less likely to rely on their own knowledge..."

Source: https://uwaterloo.ca/news/news/access-internet-makes-us-less-willing-say-we-know-things

<more at http://www.realsimple.com/work-life/technology/communication-etiquette/internet-confidence; related links: http://fortune.com/2015/12/09/internet-making-people-doubt-themselves/ (How The Internet Is Making People Doubt Themselves. December 9, 2015) and http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053810015300234 (Answers at your fingertips: Access to the Internet influences willingness to answer questions. Amanda M. Ferguson, David McLean, and Evan F. Risko.doi:10.1016/j.concog.2015.08.008. Consciousness and Cognition, Volume 37, December 2015, Pages 91–102. [Abstract: Recent technological advances have given rise to an information-gathering tool unparalleled by any in human history—the Internet. Understanding how access to such a powerful informational tool influences how we think represents an important question for psychological science. In the present investigation we examined the impact of access to the Internet on the metacognitive processes that govern our decisions about what we “know” and “don’t know.” Results demonstrated that access to the Internet influenced individuals’ willingness to volunteer answers, which led to fewer correct answers overall but greater accuracy when an answer was offered. Critically, access to the Internet also influenced feeling-of-knowing, and this accounted for some (but not all) of the effect on willingness to volunteer answers. These findings demonstrate that access to the Internet can influence metacognitive processes, and contribute novel insights into the operation of the transactive memory system formed by people and the Internet.]); further: https://uwaterloo.ca/news/news/access-internet-makes-us-less-willing-say-we-know-things (Access to the Internet makes us less willing to say we know things. December 8, 2015)>